Hopefully by now you are finished (or almost finished) with your analysis of a formal and an informal assessment. Reflect on your work to identify (and describe) at least three strategies that you use (or try) in your own classroom to learn from formal assessments and have your students learn from formal assessments.
- There are many strategies that I use within my classroom to help students to learn from assessments. Three ways in which I can teach through these assessments are to have students answer conceptual questions, have students fix their incorrect answers and use their formal assessments as study guides for the next unit and/or final test or exam. When making tests if there is a concept that is hard to comprehend I have found that it is best to have a question that first explains itself. For example, one question that I used for a quiz dealing with the anatomy of the heart was: 'The heart is a complex organ. In it are many essential vessels and valves.The pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins are incredibly unique in the way they function in the human body. How are they different in comparison to the rest of arteries and veins within the body?' So, in this example one could see that I gave a little background information and hinted toward the uniqueness of the vessels that were in question. This technique would work for almost all scientific tests. Next, after students have taken their tests or quizzes I could assign them to fix their answers and explain why they got certain questions wrong and what they had to do to fix them. In doing this they are again reviewing the content that they need to learn as well as self-reflect. Last, formal assessments are great study guides for later assessments. For example, if one were to give 5 quizzes within a unit, they could essentially take all their unit test questions off of the quizzes. The questions may not be exact but all major concepts that students had to have learned throughout the unit would be at their fingertips at all times as long as they stayed organized. Also, this helps the teacher because they do not have to worry about making one long study guide because they have already made five smaller 'reviews'. Formally assessing is a great way to understand the levels at which one's students have an understanding for as well as acting as a tool for extended learning.